What Goes Up, What Comes Down

As East Falls loses the abandoned Japanese Restaurant building on Kelly Drive, nearby RAH watches luxury condos go up by Laurel Hill.

Two big projects underway add to the hundreds of new luxury units coming to our area thanks to a recent surge in investors and interest. Missed the details? No worries, we’ll recap here with links to further reading.

The developer (KCA Design Associates) is also building the neighborhood a rec center on an adjacent plot of land. Rose Cooper, president of the local neighbors’ association, announced at a recent meeting that already of the properties were sold before they were built.

The design received some push-back from EFDC’s design committee, as well as both EFCC and EFF, who all agree that the plans could use some tweaks. This Fall, the developer (Gary Jonas/HOW Properties) seemed very open to input from the community, but the design he provided for Philly’s Civic Design Review received a thumbs down for lack of connection with the community & the river.

Regardless, since CDR’s recommendation is just advisory, construction can begin asap. Meanwhile, Gary and his architects assure community leaders they will continue to work with neighbors to improve the final result.

2 Comments

Sean

Carolyn Fillmore

Grasso’s in the financing stage & very optimistic about things coming together soon so building can begin. “Full steam ahead” was the quote we heard, although we are all waiting to hear/see something definite. Thanks for chiming in!